Saturday, July 31, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Mike for a little Palm Springs excursion with the idea of performing some night photography to get some more material for his fine art night photography collection. He had scoped out this area during a previous trip and it was someplace that he wanted to return to.

Fortunately we were able to get there before the sun went down and I had the opportunity to video a little bit of the behind the scenes of what goes into a night shoot. The big things you'll notice right off the bat is that he isn't using digital cameras but instead he is using what he has used for years. Film cameras! It was pretty cool to see the old gear still in use.

Mike has also decided to start doing some time lapse of his shoots and toward the end of the video you will see his first hack at capturing the nights' activities. It is a really cool and you get a good feel of the creation of the image.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Over the weekend I did a rare photo boondoggle with my friend Steve Cukrov who I met through a stock photography workshop I took a handful of years ago. We have been meaning to meet up for a couple of years but up until now we just couldn't make it happen.

I didn't really have an expectations other than just catching up on everything that has been going on. Steve was looking to do some location shooting and scouting so we decided to start our day by meeting at Paramount Ranch which is a place near the Malibu Mountains that is the site where Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman was filmed. That is the place that Mike introduced me too a few months ago and a place I wanted to return too.

From there we just traveled around and wound our way through different areas near Paramount Ranch and even ended up at the Reagan Presidential Library. The library wasn't really what I expected (I was thinking of more photo opportunities) but it turned out to be pretty darn cool.

After a few hours transversing the grounds we made out way to Santa Paula to check out a small train stop. From there we finished the shooting day wandering the area and capturing different views of the town through back streets.

I haven't done a photo boondoggle with no real goal than to be creative for a long while and it was a bit refreshing to just do it. I spend so much time focused on project based photography and it was really nice to have a break!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

I've wanted to photograph a scene like this for a long time but have been unable to find a suitable location to compose the image. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to spend some time in the Los Angeles area and was presented with this opportunity to capture this image. I ended up stopping at a park and ride near the train and bus station and waited for the lighting to come alive and for the temperature to cool enough for the steam to really present itself. The mixture of different light sources really help tell the story and I think is a valuable part of the overall composition of the image.

This image was capture with a Nikon D300, Nikon 70-200 2.8 lens at 70mm with an exposure of 6 second at f / 5.6.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope everyone had a great day filled with family, friends and great BBQ!

I almost didn't capture the fireworks display but at the last minute I pulled out a camera and did a quick little setup. This was a combination of BULB and F/11 and I just timed the fireworks.

I hope you had a great celebration and took advantage of the opportunity to capture your own great fireworks display!

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention that a lot of people seem to forget, do not crank up the ISO, keep it low like 100 or 200 (I just stick with the native low 200 for the Nikon's because that's the sweet spot for better dynamic range). Just think about the fact that you are capturing the light from the fireworks which is pretty darn bright.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The guys over at Majek Pictures came up with the idea to produce an entire movie click, both film and edited on Apple's new iPhone 4 and mobile iMovie. It is a pretty neat little film with a cute story and right after the clip they do into behind the scenes on how it was made. It is a really neat look at how they made this film and the tools they used to produce it.

Check out the video, I think you'll like it and it might even inspire you to do something on your own!